Customers

Sprint Nextel customers say the company is taking much better care of them than six months ago, the latest J.D. Power survey says.

Sprint was also the only company to improve substantially.

The only problem: Sprint still lags its competitors in the semi-annual survey.

"Overall wireless customer care performance has improved considerably as customers report shorter hold times and improved rates of problem resolution on the first contact," the customer satisfaction survey company said in a release today.

Story updated at noon.

Sprint Nextel today said the Swedish telecom company Ericsson would run its network for the next seven years.

The deal includes the transfer of 6,000 Sprint workers to Ericsson, including 2,000 based in Kansas City. Ericsson is expected to receive between $4.5 billion and $5 billion payments for services over the life of the contract.

The companies said no layoffs were planned and that the transferred employees would become part of Ericsson Services Inc., a wholly-owned Ericsson subsidiary based in Overland Park.

Sprint is reporting tight supplies of its high-profile Palm Pre.

Chief financial officer Bob Brust, in remarks Tuesday at an investor conference, said the company still has a "backlog of subscribers but it's not unmanageable."

He said Sprint has been getting Palm shipments every week, adding that Sprint was "catching up."

While Sprint has not revealed sales numbers, analysts had projected that about 50,000 to 100,000 Palm Pre's were sold on its launch weekend early this month.

Boost Mobile, the low-cost wireless division of Sprint Nextel, this morning announced a retail expansion with the 49-store Car Toys chain.

Car Toys has locations in Colorado, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Based in Seattle, Car Toys says it is the nation's largest independent retailer of mobile entertainment and wireless phones.

Boost Mobile has been a success story for Sprint, especially with its Monthly Unlimited plan that was launched in January. The plan offers flat-rate nationwide service for about $50 a month.

Now it's iPhone's turn.

Two weeks after the lauch of the Palm Pre smartphone through the Sprint Nextel network, Apple's latest iPhone is preparing for its launch this Friday.

Early reports indicate the phone will be hard to find -- unless you have pre-ordered.

Fierce Wireless reports that AT&T has sold out of its pre-order units, and that Apple's own stores appear to be running their own pre-order service.

There's another report out today on The Wall Street Journal's Web site that Verizon will be carrying the Palm Pre in January.

If true, according to the story, Sprint "better market the heck out of the Palm Pre over the next three months."

The Verizon rumor cropped up a couple weeks ago as Sprint prepared for the Pre launch as the cellphone's exclusive seller. Today's Journal story, like several others, cited unnamed sources. Verizon did acknowledge that it expects to push the Pre next year.

Another day, another reviewer weighs in on the Palm Pre cellphone.

The latest comes frojm Hiawatha Bray of the Boston Globe.

Bray writes that the Pre "is a powerful, versatile smartphone, and in some ways better than Apple Inc.'s renowned iPhone 3G."

But here's the caveat: The Pre "falls short of the elegant simplicity that Apple has taught us to expect," Bray writes.

Information Week
is reporting that Sprint Nextel has rolled out a corporate data plan that undercuts the competition in price.

Sprint is offering its corporate accounts a $39.99 plan that provides 500 megabits of monthly data. That would make the services two to 10 times what Verizon and A

The Star's Scott Canon filed this story about the early customer reaction to the Palm Pre.

Some guys just gotta have their gadgets.

With a bride waiting for him at the church, groom-to-be Theodore Travis stood in line at a Newnan, Ga., Sprint store wearing a three-piece tuxedo and waiting his turn to buy a Palm Pre phone.

With his wedding scheduledset for 10 a.m. Saturday, he finally bailed out of line at 9:15 — but only after giving a store manager his credit card and securing a promise that he would get the 14th Pre the store was selling that first day it went on the market.

You've read what all the media heavies have had to say about the Palm Pre. Now, how about you?

If a little shopping mania for a Pre is on your to-do list this weekend, share your experience with the readers of the Sprint Connection.

Among the questions to ponder: Why did you need the phone? Where did you buy it? How was the service? And what are your initial impressions after using the Pre?

The power of the pen -- or make that the mouse -- can make or break a product.

The reviews of the new Palm Pre smart phone are stacking up -- mostly of the favorable kind. Of course, everything is fair game, and the Pre, Sprint's hotly anticipated product, has some flaws too.

Here at Sprint Connection, we're sifting through some of the leading commentators, including the crusty Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, and David Pogue of the New York Times.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was in Atlanta last week, and sat down with a reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for a Q&A session.

A sample of the give-and-take:

Q. You're rolling out the Palm Pre, Sprint's answer to the iPhone and Blackberry. Why should customers buy it?

Hesse: "The iPhone is a fantastic consumer device. The BlackBerry is a terrific business device. But if you want one phone that's good at both, you'll want a Pre. You can have multiple applications open at the ame time. I can have the photo application open, check my contacts, look at the calendar and do e-mails when a phone call comes in."

AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson fielded some tough questions today about why his company wasn’t ready for the iPhone when it first launched.

AT&T, which has exclusive rights – at least for now – to sell the Apple iPhone in the United States, wasn’t ready, Stephenson admitted. “But we’re improving,” he said.

At the All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, Cal. Stephenson was also asked whether AT&T wants to carry the Palm Pre phone on its network.

Another Wall Street analyst weighed in today with a favorable report on the Palm Pre, which goes on sale June 6.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said he expects the Pre will have "healthy initial demand," citing a consumer survey.

"The underpenetrated smart-phone market can support several entrants," the RBC analyst wrote.

Abramsky raised his price target on Palm Inc. to $14 a share from $12, and rates the shares "outperform."

The battle for smart phone supremacy is about to heat up.

This morning, Sprint and Palm announced that the long-anticipated, Palm Pre will be available on June 6, an aptly chosen launch date as any student of history knows.

The price: $199.99.

According to PcMag.com, today's news sets up "an epic conflict with Apple's iPhone." The newest version of the iPhone is anticipated to be announced June 8.